Tom Chalmers of Legend Press
Interview by R Grayling
In 2005, aged just 25, Tom set up Legend Press with virtually no capital. By 2007 he was shortlisted for UK Young Publisher of the Year and UK Young Entrepreneur of the Year, and longlisted for the Enterprising Young Brit Award. Nowadays, as well as Legend Press, Tom also owns Paperbooks, Legend Business and manages online book retailer, Books Etc.
[RG] Hi Tom,
Many thanks for taking time out of what looks like a tremendously busy schedule to talk to us. Firstly, your primary business is the publishing company, Legend Press. Can you tell me what a typical day ‘at the office’ looks like?
[Tom] Apart from the start – getting in far too early and making a very strong cup of coffee – and the end – leaving late and hoping for at least hour or so before bed – it is hard to describe a single day due to the amount we are involved in. Days can be split up between lots of different areas or mainly focussed on a number of major tasks. I actually find those early and late hours extremely productive – once 9.30 starts, new issues/priority tasks arise and so it’s easy to let the mentally planned day slip by and find yourself trying to catch up.
Personally, the business side can become all consuming, but every now and again – such as last night when I managed to take home a manuscript and was excited by an all too rare reading opportunity – I recover that essential sense of why I started and what makes the job so special: finding brilliant writers and creating superb books, hopefully realising a dream or two along the way.
[RG] You were recently involved in the launch of Books Etc. How is that going and how are they different from other online book retailers?
[Tom] It’s going very well. Having mentioned how much we are involved in, our year ahead was already full when the new owners, who I’ve worked with before, asked me in January if Legend Press wanted to manage the site. It was really too exciting an opportunity to turn down. There was a tremendous amount of work at the start, and there still is, but we’re delighted to be involved in, sadly, the only part of the tragic demise of Borders to be saved.
The site is going extremely well and it has been a lesson to see how important a strong brand is, and the effect it can have. There is a long way to go but the member sign-up rate has been amazing. Our aim is to create a book buying alternative that sits between all of the others – offering a site with personality, individual book selection, while competing on price as required by today’s customer.
[RG] With the advent of iPads, eBooks and eReaders, where do you see the book trade in 5 years time?
[Tom] Although the signs were there, I wouldn’t have predicted six months ago that the UK and Ireland high-streets would have lost Borders (BOOKS etc. shops with it) and Hughes and Hughes, which illustrates what change the book trade is currently going through. However, while it is incredibly tough for most to survive at the moment, the industry was in need of fundamental change to become closer in step to the modern consumer world and to find a business model that many privately must have known was defunct.
The e-book is clearly going to have a huge role to play – sales are still relatively low, but we tend to follow the US, where sales are many times greater, and with a new generation more used to digitalisation, in 1-2 years time, the e-book will take up a far greater proportion of sales. I only hope we learn the lessons from the music industry (sadly the book market won’t be kept alive by the live industry – while events are important, not sure I can see Terry Pratchett reading to 100,000 at Wembley) and keep prices representing the value of the book and use the e-book to drive the new generation to the hard copy as well.
Outside of that, I think most business will move online, with a small list of top seller sold exclusively on the high-street by the supermarkets, with hopefully the high-street bookshops finding their market in the middle, for that customer who wants the overall experience and to find something a bit different – a customer that is still out there.
[RG] Do you get much chance to read and, if so, what’s your favourite tipple?
[Tom] Not as much as I would like – the days of spending Friday afternoons at the nearby café catching up on reading are long gone. Too often those Fridays are spent with spreadsheets and cash-flows which can’t, and shouldn’t, be avoided running a business. I had my first holiday in four years last year and just to be away reading in the sun felt fantastic.
I do keep a book by my bedside as it’s important, personally and I think for sanity, to keep reading outside of work, but it often takes me a disgracefully long time to finish them due to not having the time. I go through spells with personal reading – from deciding to read outside of fiction, modern hits, classics, recommendations and back again etc. The author that I have enjoyed and has struck me most in recent years is Haruki Murikami – The Wind-Up Bird is the most memorable book I’ve read in recent years, and one I recommend whenever asked. It was recommended to me by a friend, and a part of me feels a little selfishly sad that so many now appear to have found and love his work. But he deserves it.
[RG] If a struggling author had the next best-seller melting their laptop screen, how would you advise them to approach you?
[Tom] We are one of few publishers still accepting unsolicited manuscripts and so they can send it to submissions@legend-paperbooks.co.uk, sending 3-4 sample chapters, synopsis and a covering letter. It takes us a while due to the number, but we do get round to them all. A good agent can help, as will know how to particularly get our attention, but the process is similar so would recommend trying to get both at the same time.
Make sure you’ve finished it and are feeling happy with the end result. There are no set rules for writing as it is so individual, but maybe putting yourself into the mind of the reader briefly and also thinking about exactly who you see buying it will help – it’s one of the first things we’ll do with any manuscript we like. One of my central principles in work is that if you can put yourself into the mind of the persons making the decision you want, rather than focussing on your own, and can meet the questions that will be asked, then you’re half way there. Also, don’t waste time on synopsis and cover letter – both should be simple and no more than a page each.
[RG] You recently judged the Chapter One short story competition. What was that like and what is the standard of short story telling like at the moment?
[Tom] We all really enjoyed reading through them and the standard was very good. It was also great to be able to put some time aside for reading, as per above. There are now a huge amount of writers out there, meaning competition for being published is very tough and there is a large variance in standard. However, among them there are so many great story-tellers, some ready and just waiting for their chance and other requiring a little work but with the talent clear.
We’re just launching the latest in our annual short story series, Ten Journeys, and we’re hugely passionate about the importance of the short story. Advances have been made, but there is still a long way to go before it receives the attention it deserves.
[RG] You’ll notice some of Legend’s/Paperbook’s finest wordsmiths have already spoken to us here at SA. [See Gary Davison, Gary Murning, Josie Henley-Einion interviews] Who is your latest and greatest debut author?
[Tom] All certainly wonderful wordsmiths, and will be checking back through their interviews to make sure they were nice. I certainly couldn’t select one upcoming author above the others, there would be author uproar, maybe an anonymous threatening letter. But we’re incredibly excited about launching ASHES by Matthew Crow and THE SKY IS CHANGING by Zoë Jenny. Matthew is only 22-years-old and the most exciting writer of his age I have every come across, and Zoë’s first novel, THE POLLEN ROOM, sold into 27 languages and made her the highest-selling debut Swiss novelist ever. This is her first novel written in English and we’re obviously incredibly excited about launching it. Hopefully these two titles show the range of writers we’re trying to build across our lists.
Thank you for your time Tom and good luck with the next holiday!
Richard